New Delhi: Challenge to Bombay High Court's Order on Reservation

Challenging the Bombay High Court's order, a Special Leave Petition has been filed before the Apex Court seeking 41 per cent reservation for SC, ST, and OBC communities for PG medical admissions at Goa Medical College from the academic year 2021-2022.

Although the top court bench comprising of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and P.S. Narasimha has issued a notice in the matter, it has refused to grant any interim relief.

"...This needs to be considered. We will not pass an interim order. We will issue notice…" the bench was quoted observing by Live Law.

The matter goes back to 03.06.2000, when issuing a notification, the Goa Government had extended the benefit of reservation to the OBC communities in direct recruitment for State services and State undertaking with 27% reservation. However, this reservation had been reduced to 19.5% in 2003. In another notification in 2007, the Government had decided to extend the reservation to the ST category to 12% of total seats in all the educational institutes in Goa. In a notification dated 22.02.2014, the OBC reservation had again enhanced to 27% in education institutes- government or government-aided. However, at that time, this reservation was not applicable in the case of PG medical admissions.

Back in 2020, the Goa State Commission for SC/ST ordered to implement reservation for SC, ST, OBC communities in PG medical courses at GMC.

Following this, several representations had been written to the State, seeking the benefit of 41% reservation (ST 12%, SC 25%, and OBC 27%) in PG medical courses at GMC. However, as the order had not been implemented, a plea had been filed before the Bombay High Court. At that time, the Government had promised to implement the reservation from the next academic year i.e. 2021-2022. However, the decision of the Government had been challenged before the Bombay HC.

The Bombay High Court had earlier reported that it had struck down the 41 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) in the state quota post-graduate seats after it had noted that it was contrary to the principles laid down by the Supreme Court.

In fact, setting aside the Government's reservation policy, the HC bench comprising of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar had also opined that the decision regarding such a reservation policy had been taken in haste by the Government without application of mind.

Also Read: Bombay HC Sets Aside Goa Govt's Decision on 41 percent Reservation in PG Medical seats

As per the latest media report by Live Law, challenging the order, a plea has now been filed before the Apex Court by the members of the Bhandari Community, who are willing to pursue medical courses at the Goa Medical College.

It is the contention of the petitioners that the Government order dated 22.04.2020 has been set aside by the HC without there being any challenge to the previous notifications dated 07.09.2007 and 22.01.2014, which were issued in exercise of power under Article 162 read with Article 15(4) of the Constitution of India.

Contending that the HC had entered the domain of the executive, the petitioners argued that the HC order had invalidated the decisions dated 16.03.2020, 22.04.2020, and 04.05.2020 by holding that even though the parent notifications had been there for around 14 years, the government had never before reserved seats for the PG medical courses in the Goa Medical College.

It was further argued by the petitioners that the HC, which had earlier disposed of a petition after receiving assurance from the Government that the reservation policy would be implemented from the next academic year and so, could not pass conflicting orders.

The petitioners also vehemently assailed the HC's observation that the recommendation of the Goa Commission for SC/ST had been made in a hurried manner without any application of mind.

Also Read: HC admits plea flagging irregularities in Goa Medical College Recruitment drive